82. Jaane Tu … Ya Jaane Na (2008) — What an absolute joy it is to share a movie with my friends, especially when they’re patient and loving enough to rewatch said movie for the umpteenth time. Thank you, thank you and thank you, Sayesha, VV and AV, for an evening of tasty nosh and heartwarming dost.
Back to the movie — the night’s revelries might have added to its lustre, but this is actually a refreshing little story that mingles the brashness and breeziness of youth with wisdom, charm and maybe a tad too much smart aleck-iness. It features the funniest use of a portrait in any movie I’ve seen. A chemically bonded ensemble (except for the overacting air stewardess). And a glimpse of Imran Khan (the actor) looking good — positively regal — on a horse.
Rather than being a straightforward romance about best friends who discover they’re in love, I think the movie is really about how the knowledge of self is not so much an attainable prize as a sometimes painful, sometimes glorious trek through a vast terrain, tinged with light and cast in shadow.
A plot point made me wonder: how can you be so sure and steadfast in your devotion to someone without realising how inextricable your happiness is from that person’s? Hey, isn’t this somewhat like the question I asked of He’s Just Not That Into You? That is, can you be “in love” without realising it? Sounds awful to me. Sign me up for a dose of self-awareness.
Read about Celest Chong’s fascinating beauty regime in Urban while back in Singapore — since I love step-by-step anythings, I’m going to share my edited version of what she said:
Evermore
1. Cleanse
2. Tone
3. Moisturise
Night of Day 1
Use a hydrating mask.
Night of Day 2
1. Start with a clarifying mask, e.g. clay or peeling.
2. Then use a treatment mask for specific issues, e.g. skin brightening, pore tightening.
3. End with a moisturising mask.
4. Cleanse to remove residue.
Night of Day 3
Give it a rest.
Day Next
Repeat Days 1 to 3 ad infinitum.
Caught He’s Just Not That Into You on the plane back from Singapore today — turned out to be a surprisingly moral movie. What?! Well, here’s what I learnt from it:
1. Be honest about who you are and what you want — don’t be a steenkin’ liar. Being the good guy/girl is all about “No! Try not. Do — or do not. There is no try.”
2. You can’t profess to love someone and want the best for that person if you’re not willing to give the object of your affection what he/she wants. Brilliantly illustrated with the arc for the Ben Affleck character, though I’m not sure why Ben Affleck himself looks so very … faint.
3. Promises are meant to be kept. Don’t make them if you’re not ready or 100% willing to do so. Dire temptation will surely ensure to dissolve your resolve to keep them.
My favourite thread in the movie is the one featuring the fearless performers Ginnifer Goodwin and Justin Long — as usual, it’s the oddball couple that gets my insides all warm and twisty. Is it really possible, though, to be so cynical as to not realise you’re just that into someone? Ooh, that brings me to one more moral thingum I learnt from the movie:
4. Know hope.
Just about done with the creative writing course, so hazy writing days are here again! But perhaps maybe possibly not. I’m going through a growth spurt in many directions right now, and things are wondrously, joyously crazy, and I don’t think I’ll ever look at you the same way again.
Before I get back to irregular programming, it’s time to unload a bunch of chestnuts I’ve been storing in my Firefox tabs.
First one to go: remember the Columbine High School massacre in the US, which spawned Michael Moore’s Bowling for Columbine and continues to echo down the hallways of any school in any country that permits private firearms and death metal (though surely you can be a musical-loving murderer)?
Well, the awful truth about a horrific mess usually takes a while to filter through the spectacle and shock. Sometimes it takes, oh, a decade or so. If you are at all interested in what happened that day, you must read this report by Andrew Gumbel.
One of the publicised moments that stuck in my mind was about a girl who was shot when she said “yes”, when one of the killers asked her if she believed in God, while pointing a gun at her head. I recall spotting a book about her published within a year of her death. I didn’t feel anger or disappointment in God at the time, just awe at the girl’s seeming martyrdom, I guess. Now it turns out that the girl in question, Cassie Bernall, wasn’t the one who said yes to the question:
It was Valeen Schnurr, who was asked by [Dylan] Klebold, if she believed in God, and answered yes. She was then spared. If the killers hated Christians, they were distinctly uneven in how they applied that hatred.
Ah, my heart said, when I read that.
This reminds me of another sad memory: Margaret Hassan. Someone was finally convicted of her murder this year, but goodness knows if justice has really been served. I think there are still no answers as to why a woman who lived a life of service to the Iraqi people was shot in the head, point blank, for her toil.
There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio,
Than are dreamt of in your philosophy.
Let me just cut to the chase and say this: Star Trek left me grinning wildly in the shadows of its rolling credits — what a pure piece of entertainment! It’s just the sort of movie you’d hope to see if you were in the mood for something that runs the gamut of emotions without scarring you for life. Exhilarating ride. Cinematic joy. And best of all: it did not for a second wear a thread off my patience, nor move my mind’s eye an inch from its suspension of reality. Brilliance. I’m so glad I went in without knowing anything about how the filmmakers were “rebooting” the universe … and who was going to make a special appearance. Am so happily geeked out. Bliss. Only the big screen does the experience justice. And now to bed.
